NathMarc November 5th
by Free.Spirit140
Summary: When Nathaniel's plan to go to a Jagged Stone concert with Marc gets ruined, Marc comes up with a plan B that turns out to be better than plan A.


Nathaniel groaned, flopping backwards on his bed as his mum left his room. Well, it was official. He was going to miss the concert all because of this little stomach bug. Great.

Jagged Stone was playing on top of the Eiffel Tower in two hours and Nathaniel had a ticket sat on his bedside table, waiting and begging to be used. Marc and Alix had tickets to, the three of them having booked to go together as a group.

Truthfully Nathaniel had wanted to go alone with Marc to try and pluck up the courage to tell the other boy he liked him, but Nathaniel had ended up chickening out and addressing both Marc and Alix. Alix had agreed, glaring at Nathaniel from her spot behind Marc the entire time and had promptly smacked Nathaniel around the head with her hat the second Marc left the art room. In the end Alix decided she would go, if only to make sure Nathaniel actually followed through with his plan this time around.

Of course none of that mattered now because Nathaniel wouldn't be going to the concert. Fantastic.

Nathaniel sighed, picking his phone off the bedside table, dialing Alix and putting her on speakerphone.

She picked up on the second dialing tone.

"What did your mum say?" She demanded, voice hard as stone.

" 'Hey Nath, how you feeling?' " Nath mocked, voice pitching in a vague attempt at copying Alix's voice "Would it kill you?"

"Shut up dumbass, you know I'm worried about you, I'm just cutting to the chase."

"She said no. I still have a slight temperature, even if it's only a little high she doesn't want to take any chances sending me out at night in the cold." Nath sighed, pulling a pillow over his face "This sucks."

"You're gonna have to either speak up or pull whatever your hiding under away from your face." Alix stated and Nath could practically see her folding her arms and rolling her eyes.

"I said-" Nath started adjusting himself so he was lying with the pillow on his lap "this sucks."

"No kidding," Alix mumbled "What you gonna do now?"

"Think up a new plan?" Nathaniel asked, sighing for what must have been the hundredth time that night.

"Why do you need a plan? Just ask him out, what's so hard about that?"

"I can't just ask him out Alix!" Nathaniel shouted, as if Alix had suggested killing Marc instead of asking him on a date.

"Why not?! You two clearly like each other, just ask him out and get it over with. I'm sick of the romantic tension whenever the three of us hang out, and Marc sure as hell isn't confident enough to make the first move."

"Neither am I!" Nathaniel pointed out, pulling the pillow over his face again "Just go enjoy the concert without me okay." He added, making sure to speak up enough to be heard through the pillow.

"Are you sure you're okay with me and Marc going on our own? This was meant to be a thing for the two of you."

Nathaniel huffed, pulling the pillow away from his face again so he could be heard "I'm sure. You and Marc both like Jagged Stone and you've both been looking forward to this. Just stay close to Marc, he's not a fan of huge crowds so try to stay away from the front."

"Oh, that tears it!" Alix snapped before promptly hanging up.

Nathaniel picked his phone up again, holding the screen so he could blink at it in confusion. What flew up her nose so suddenly?

He brushed it off, turning his attention to dialing Marc only to be met with Marc's voicemail greeting.

Alix must have called him after she hung up with Nathaniel.

Nathaniel groaned, dropping his phone to the bed next to him and placing the pillow back under his head, rolling onto his side so he could try and sleep the last of the temperature off.

He wound up just staring into his room, thinking. He wasn't sure how long he had been staring into nothingness but his attention was quickly drawn to his bedroom door by a knock a while later.

Nathaniel froze as soon as he saw who was standing in his bedroom doorway, internally screaming at himself to fix his hair, go clean his teeth, and lock himself in the bathroom all at the same time.

Instead he settled for mumbling "Marc?"

"Hi…" Marc responded, left hand clutching his right arm so his left arm was drawn across himself "Your mum let me in, sorry."

"No, no! Don't- don't apologise." Nathaniel mumbled, looking Marc over and subconsciously taking note of the red jacket, a tone or two darker than his normal hoodie, and the black laptop bag hung over his shoulder "New jacket?"

"Uh, no, not really," Marc mumbled "I've had it a while but I don't usually wear it… mum convinced me to tonight. She said it would be warmer than my hoodie…" Marc trailed off, looking down at his jacket and nervously biting his lip.

"What are you doing here? You're meant to be at the concert with Alix about now right?" Nathaniel asked, confused. Had Alix not called Marc? Did Marc come to pick Nathaniel up and take him to the concert?

"O-oh, um, well, I kind of am? Or I will be, anyway. Do- do you have a balcony?" Marc asked, hands fiddling with the strap of his laptop bag as he made eye contact with Nathaniel again.

"Yeah? Just up there," Nathaniel pointed to a wooden ladder that led to a window that opened onto the roof "why?"

"Great!" Marc beamed, heading over to the ladder "Grab your coat and as many blankets as you can carry and meet me up there okay? I just need to fix something." and with that Marc vanished up the ladder.

Nathaniel just stared at where Marc had vanished, his brain taking a while to fully acknowledge what had just happened. He slowly pulled himself off of his bed, grabbing a jacket from the chair in the corner and then moving out of his room to grab some duvets, pillows and blankets from the storage cupboard. He vaguely heard his mum yell something about hot chocolate as he moved back into his room, balancing his collection as he climbed the ladder.

"-e're all set on this end I think." Marc's voice came from the other side of the precariously balanced pile.

"Good 'cuse it's going to start any minute." Alix's voice responded.

Nathaniel's head spun slightly as he quickly tried to figure out when Alix had gotten into his house.

"Ah! Nath! You should have made more than one trip with those!" footsteps approached at a jog and soon a portion of the pile was removed from Nathaniel's grip.

"I wasn't thinking." Nathaniel admitted, thankful for now being able to see.

Marc's laptop was open on the floor, proudly displaying Alix's smirking face.

"I hope you don't mind," Marc started, chewing his lip "Alix told me you were going to miss the concert and I had this idea, then Alix told me you had a great view of the Eiffel tower from your place and I figured that we could do it up here and then we could see the concert from both near and far, it was stupid really, you're still ill so you should be inside in the warm, then again your mum gave the go ahead to do it..." Marc rambled, trailing off at the end as his fingers pressed into his arm.

"What exactly is 'it'?" Nath asked, not quite piecing together the jigsaw in his head.

"Skype!" Alix chipped in "Marc figured if I got Skype on my phone then I could just hold my phone up whilst on a call with you guys and then you could watch the entire thing live on Marc's laptop."

"But you're there on your own!" Nathaniel protested "Are you really okay with that?"

"I'm not on my own, I ran into Marinette at the entrance." as if to prove her point Alix spun on the spot slightly so Marinette joined her on screen.

"He guys!" Marinette chirped, waving enthusiastically.

"And I have all of the powerpacks my family owns shoved in my bag so my phone won't run out of charge halfway through." Alix finished, smirking.

"My laptop is fully charged so we should have enough run time on there to watch the entire thing," Marc added, still looking unsure of his plan "but your mum says if we start to run low you should just text her and she'll get the super long extension lead and run it from your room up here so I can plug in."

Nath stood for a second, silently digesting the new information before he turned to Marc, smile sliding into place.

"You did all this for me? Just so I could watch the concert?"

Marc nodded, eyes not leaving the mound of pillows and duvets he'd dropped on the floor by his feet.

"I love it. Thank you." Nathaniel stated honestly, smiling.

Music soon reached their ears and Marc and Nathaniel quickly turned to the laptop.

"You two better hurry up and get comfy," Alix commanded, flipping to her back-facing camera so the boys could get a proper view of the stage "He's starting."

Marc and Nathaniel shared a look before they quickly organised the pillows, blankets and duvets so they would be warm.

The spare duvet for his parents bed was sprawled on the floor to protect them both from getting cold by sitting on the concrete, the other blankets and duvets were haphazardly thrown over the two of them as they sat, propped against multiple pillows and as close together as possible so they could both see the screen.

The concert went smoothly, the boys cheering and hollering with the on-screen crowd. True to her word Nathaniel's mum kept the boys supplied with hot chocolate and snacks throughout the concert.

Jagged Stone was gearing up for his encore when Alix started swearing, phone being thrust into Marinette's hands as she scrambled open her bag.

"What's up?" Marinette asked, confused.

"None of the portable chargers I have left have power!" Alix replied, voice loud as the fought to be heard over the crowd "This app drains battery like a bi- ah! I have a bit of juice in this one!"

Marc and Nathaniel laughed as the phone was passed back to Alix who flicked the camera back to front-facing camera.

"You two dorks better thank me for this! All the trouble I've been to!" She complained before allowing the boys their view of the stage again as Jagged started his encore song.

"You didn't have to go to all this trouble for me you know." Nathaniel stated, although he couldn't help the smile that started to form on his face.

"I wanted to." Marc stated and Nathaniel was stunned at how much sincerity was in the other boy's voice "I- uh…" Marc seemed to falter over his words for a second, eyes staring into the laptop for a second before he quickly turned to face Nathaniel "I really like you Nathaniel. As- as more than a friend-"

Marc continued rambling but Nathaniel didn't hear a word beyond the 'I really like you'.

There was no way, absolutely no way, Marc liked Nathaniel back. Nathaniel was never that lucky. Every single one of his crushes had been unrequited so far. Nathaniel didn't get this lucky. Ever.

But here he was, sat on his balcony, overlooking the Eiffel tower with Jagged Stone's concert playing full volume from the laptop in front of them, his crush admitting to Nathaniel that he liked Nath back. It felt like a dream. A weird, yet very, very amazing dream.

"-You probably find it weird right? What am I saying, you definitely find it weird. God, this was a stupid idea, I'm sorry I'll go-"

Nathaniel quickly grabbed Marc's wrist, stopping the other boy from leaving.

"I like you too." Nathaniel admitted, the weight flying off his shoulders as he said it "In the same way. That's why I asked you to the concert tonight, or rather, why I tried to ask you. It was meant to be like a date-like thing where I would admit how I felt but I chickened out and asked Alix along as well. I really, really like you Marc."

Marc's eyes were as wide as dinner plates, fear evaporating from them and leaving only a hopeful glint.

"Finally!" Alix cheered from the laptop as Marinette let out a string of 'awwwww' in the background.

"You two are so-" Marinette started before Nathaniel quickly slammed the laptop closed, heat rising to his cheeks.

"Jagged stone was still playing." Marc pointed out, though it didn't sound like he cared all that much.

"Doesn't matter," Nath stated, turning his attention to the Eiffel tower where fireworks had just started filling the sky around it, presumably in time to the music as Jagged reached his final chorus "this is our moment. They shouldn't ruin it."

Marc nodded, turning his attention to the flashes of colour too, leaning his head on Nathaniel's shoulder as he did so.

Nathaniel smiled, leaning his head against Marc's head.

"We had the best seats in the house." Nathaniel murmured, finding Marc's hand under the mound of blankets and squeezing it.

"Definitely."


End file.
